A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) protects one or more special habitats and/or species – terrestrial or marine – listed in the Habitats Directive.

Scotland has 241 designated SACs, including three that straddle the border with England and two which straddle the 12nm inshore/offshore territorial boundary. There are also eight designated SACs entirely in Scotland's offshore waters. Together they cover more than 2.47 million hectares (9,560 square miles) of land and inshore waters in Scotland and Scottish offshore waters.

In Scottish inshore and/or offshore waters there are also:

two candidate SACs – sites submitted to the European Commission as SACs

two candidate SACs that have been adopted by the European Commission as Sites of Community Importance

These Sites of Community Importance and candidate SACs cover an area of almost 3 million hectares.

SACs can range in size from a small burn that’s vitally important to the freshwater pearl mussel to the 150,000-hectare Moray Firth marine SAC that’s important for bottlenose dolphins. Then there’s the Inner Hebrides and the Minches candidate SAC, important for harbour porpoise, which covers 1.38 million hectares. Read more about how these sites are protected and managed.

Habitats and species protected in Scotland

Scotland’s terrestrial and marine SACs protect a variety of habitats and species:

Selection and designation

SACs are selected for particular habitats and species that are listed in Annexes of the Habitats Directive. Find out about the SAC designation process on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) website.

Before the Scottish Government may designate a new SAC, the EC must first adopt the proposed site. Natura site data forms are used to submit information about SACs to the EC as part of the adoption process.